Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Teen Moloch Ellis

Done in illustrator.
There's a silent film I have in my Netflix queue that features Moloch from the Roman times. Cabiria (1914).
The scene involves our two reluctant heroes trying to free the royal child from the line up for sacrifice to Moloch.
Moloch is this big statue whose belly opens up as a chute to a bright oven. Good operatic lighting.
But the movie has no sense of its audience.
How they might react to seeing 8 prior child sacrifices before our heroes finally get away with the kid they want.
Almost funny. Little kids wriggling gruesomely (real kids) then dropped onto the chute where they disappear in the smoke.
That link to the Unholy 3 in the comments allows for downloads. I now own a copy. And it is NOT flopped. Unlike what they stream. The little Midget from Freaks was probably also the midget in the Spanky and Our Gang with the gangster midget. Stymie is, of course, the only one wise to the situation.

I found a little clip on YouTube that shows the scene you're talking about. Watching it made me think about how cool it must have been for those early filmmakers to be experimenting with this new medium. Pictures that actually move! They must have thought, "What incredible storytelling power has finally been put into our hands!" Kind of like how today Ronnie can sit at home and do full animation on a desktop computer.

A crazy contradiction between the surreal clarity of the production still you can find, and then the generally awful image quality of the surviving films. If these movies looked as HD incredible as their film-stills, they would REALLY be something.

I know this is an early flick (hence the lumbering pace) but have you checked out some Lon Chaney works like "Laugh Clown, Laugh!" or esp'ly "The Unholy Three"?? They did a sound remake of the unholy 3 with same actors, but the silent is better--moves faster. A much sprightlier viewing experience--and a great, HILARIOUS movie.

I have seen the Unholy 3 . With Joan Crawford. Don't you imagine she didn't want that part of her resume brought up during her career." Oh yes, back in the old silent days . When I worked with Chaney Sr." Talk about dating yourself. Got to work all the way up to Spielberg and his Night Gallery segment.

No I haven't seen the Unholy 3. I was thinking of the Unknown for all the above.But I see Tod Browning directed both.

I know Unholy 3 it was a favorite of Forrest Ackerman. And like you, the silent version was his fave. Sounds great. Lon Chaney was a cool actor.